Luke 8:22-25 (NIV)

One day Jesus said to his disciples, "Let's go over to the other side of the lake." So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.

The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Master, Master, we're going to drown!"

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. "Where is your faith?" he asked his disciples.

In fear and amazement they asked one another, "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him."

I don't know about you, but I have a bad habit of thinking I'd do a lot better than Bible characters if I were in their situations.

I mean, come on Adam!  I'm sure I wouldn't have eaten that apple.  And Abraham, what could you have been thinking when you ignored God's promise and fathered Ishmael?  What, didn't you believe Him?

I get the same kind of chip on my shoulder when I read this passage.  It seems like the disciples should have known better, and I want to think that I would have responded to the situation much differently.

It's not as if they didn't have plenty of reason to trust Jesus.  By this point in Luke's narrative, they've already watched Jesus perform miraculous healings and even bring a dead boy back to life.  Did they really think he was going to let them die?

Jesus seems a little annoyed at the disciples for waking him up for something as minor as a storm.  "Where is your faith?" he asks quite pointedly.  Where, indeed!

But just when I think I can be a little smug and feel superior to those foolish disciples, God reminds me that I haven't done quite so well in my own life.  In fact, haven't I been running around worrying about little things in my life?  Aren't there some metaphorical storms brewing that have me scared out of my wits, fearing they'll overtake me?  And haven't I been wringing my hands, stressing myself out, wondering if God's going to fix the problem before disaster strikes?

"Where is your faith?"

Hmmm.  Maybe I'm not so much better than the disciples after all.

I don't like to think that my problem is a lack of faith, so I try to make up excuses.  For one thing, it seems like the disciples had an advantage.  After all, Jesus was right there in the boat with them!  Surely if Jesus were right here with me, I'd have an easier time staying calm when life's little dramas pop up.  I wouldn't worry if Jesus were right here...

And yet, I say I believe that he is here.  Right now.  With me.

Is my faith so weak that it disappears when I can't see Jesus?

Once I really think about it, I realize that I'm no different than the disciples were.  My problem isn't that God's sleeping or ignoring me, and my problem isn't that I have such big problems.  My problem is that I say I believe God is bigger than every storm I could face in life, but when the storms actually appear, I freak out and forget what I say I believe.  I think I'm going to drown, even though God has brought me through hundreds of storms before.

In Mark's version of the passage, the disciples are even more blunt about their true feelings.  They ask Jesus, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"

Don't you care?  I have to laugh.  Who would dare to talk to Jesus that way?  And yet I've done it many times, asking God, "Don't you care that I'm going through these hard times?  Where are you?"

The disciples should have known that Jesus would bring them through, because he was the one who put them there in the first place.  At the beginning of the passage, getting in the boat was Jesus' idea.  Similarly, as long as we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, we can rest assured that God will bring us through any storms that might pop up along the way.

On the other hand, those storms that pop up when we're going down our own path - those are the ones that we'd be better off to avoid!

Are storms brewing in your life right now?  What are they?  Are these storms you could avoid by doing what God's called you to do?  If so, you need to turn around.  But if not, know that God wouldn't have brought you here unless He had a plan for dealing with this.  God knows what's going on.  God isn't asleep.

Where is your faith?